English 690: Writing Center Theory

Grimm acknowledges that a reader might reasonably wonder whether “we can expect eighteen- or nineteen-year-old college students to generate these discussions” (76) and “just how fair it is to expect so much from a writing center” (78). I think that an implied answer that should be addressed more overtly is that it is not fair to expect so much from a writing center and that eighteen- or nineteen-year-old college students are not the best candidates for initiating these discussions. Later, however, she asserts that writing centers “can be situational catalysts in the effort to rethink literacy education in ways that no longer reproduce social divisions and that redefine what counts as literacy in postmodern times” (98). That is, a writing center must begin to do something that should become the shared mission of the university. There is risk associated with adopting a position of leadership, but I think that risk is better than complicity.